Sunday, November 16, 2014

Festivities at the Canoga Park First-Wednesday-of-the-Month Women’s Club weekly nightclub, the Cocanoga Grove, ended with a bang Saturday night when two patrons were involved in a fender bender while leaving the premises.

“It was a relatively quiet night for the club - either that or I’ve suffered so much hearing loss from being subjected to years of their blasting music that I just don't notice it as much as I used to,” notes neighbor Téodor Pasternak. “But suddenly, after midnight, there was a terrific crash, and then a lot of shrieking and swearing.”

Concerned that someone might be hurt, Pasternak hurried to the popular venue at the corner of Jordan and Valerio where just up the street he saw people stumbl milling around a late model SUV completely blocking Jordan Avenue diagonally and an older sedan near the club parking lot's east exit.

The peaceful appearance of the Jordan Avenue exit of the club's parking lot on Sunday morning
belies the frantic hullaballoo of an accident that occurred less than twelve hours earlier. Staff photo.

“There was broken glass on the street, and someone had evidently made a point to unload a case of Corona out of one of the vehicles onto the lawn after the accident - I can’t for the life of me imagine why,” the civic-minded area resident says. Pasternak notes that despite obvious damage to both vehicles, the two drivers handled the pileup without incident and specifically did not want the police involved, adding “again, I just can’t imagine why.” Instead, those in the crack-up focused on sweeping up the mess and “getting the hell out of there fast,” he says.

Other residents along Jordan Avenue, alerted by the noise of the impact, came out to look and were seen rolling their eyes, shaking their heads and muttering phrases such as “Here we go again.” It’s unclear whether the evening’s festive bash & crash were part of the ongoing schedule of events celebrating the 100th anniversary of the beloved local women’s club.